Pamela, Volume II eBook

The balance of all was thirty-five pounds eleven shillings
and odd pence; and I went to my escritoir, and took
out forty pounds, and down I hasted to my good Mrs.
Jervis, and I said to her, “Here, my dear good
friend, is your pocket-book; but are thirty-five or
thirty-six pounds all you owe, or are bound for in
the world?”

“It is, Madam,” said she, “and enough
too. It is a great sum; but ’tis in four
hands, and they are all in pretty good circumstances,
and so convinced of my honesty, that they will never
trouble me for it; for I have reduced the debt every
year something, since I have been in my master’s
service.”

“Nor shall it ever be in any body’s power,”
said I, “to trouble you: I’ll tell
you how we’ll order it.”

So I sat down, and made her sit by me. “Here,
my dear Mrs. Jervis, is forty pounds. It is not
so much to me now, as the two guineas were to you,
that you would have given me at my going away from
this house to my father’s, as I thought.
I will not give it you neither, at least at
present, as you shall hear: indeed I won’t
make you so uneasy as that comes to. But take
this, and pay the thirty-five pounds odd money to
the utmost farthing; and the remaining four pounds
odd will be a little fund in advance towards the children’s
schooling. And thus you shall repay it; I always
designed, as our dear master added five guineas per
annum to your salary, in acknowledgement of the pleasure
he took in your services, when I was Pamela Andrews,
to add five pounds per annum to it from the time I
became Mrs. B. But from that time, for so many years
to come, you shall receive no more than you did, till
the whole forty pounds be repaid. So, my dear
Mrs. Jervis, you won’t have any obligation to
me, you know, but for the advance; and that is a poor
matter, not to be spoken of: and I will have leave
for it, for fear I should die.”

Had your ladyship seen the dear good woman’s
behaviour, on this occasion, you would never have
forgotten it. She could not speak; tears ran
down her cheeks in plentiful currents: her modest
hand put gently from her my offering hand, her bosom
heav’d, and she sobb’d with the painful
tumult that seemed to struggle within her, and which,
for some few moments, made her incapable of speaking.

At last, I rising, and putting my arm round her neck,
wiping her eyes, and kissing her cheek, she cried,
“My excellent lady! ’tis too much!
I cannot bear all this.”—­She then
threw herself at my feet; for I was not strong enough
to hinder it; and with uplifted hands—­“May
God Almighty,” said she—­I kneeled
by her, and clasping her hands in mine, both uplifted
together—­“May God Almighty,”
said I, drowning her voice with my louder voice, “bless
us both together, for many happy years! And bless
and reward the dear gentleman, who has thus enabled
me to make the widow’s heart to sing for
joy!”

And thus, my lady, did I force upon the good woman’s
acceptance the forty pounds.